“What if we had a debate and no one showed up to listen? Who would fight?”

Social media is absolutely destroying a Google computer engineer for having the audacity to question the importance of “diversity” in the corporate culture at the giant tech company. It seems everyone has a ready and passionate opinion.

Two points of interest here.

First of all, does anyone ever refer to something they AGREE with as a “manifesto?” Marx had a manifesto. The Unibomber had a manifesto.

It was a company MEMO folks. Using such ludicrous language already tells me you have serious bias issues with what it contains. That leads me to the second point.

Second, did anyone actually READ this “manifesto?” Or did they just read the headline and guess what it said? Before anything else, you should READ IT so we can talk like intelligent, informed individuals. It took a few links within links to find the actual text of it, which tells me that hardly anyone who is DISCUSSING the thing is actually bothering to READ it first.

It’s actually well written and talks about practical solutions. It is about as far from “sexist” or “misogynist” as you can get. In fact many of the suggestions (better work/home balance for women with families, more social interaction with customers, less focus on monetary/status rewards that disproportionately draw men) are exactly what many feminists are pushing for.

However, the “narrative” is out there and it seems this guy is going to have his character”assassinated” in the media without most folks even reading what he has to say. It’s a pity because he seems to be trying to get input and real dialogue started.

Maybe that’s the problem. He’s an programming engineer. Engineers try to rationally solve problems. Programmers have to use the same language when programming.

This guy is speaking in the language of reason and logical debate. His critics are operating in the language of emotion and outrage. They are two different sides of the brain.

The Right side of the brain processes emotion, creativity and intuition.

The Left side of the brain processes logic, math and fact.

There is crossover between the two obviously, but if MOST of your thinking is done in one side or the other then you’re going to clash.

I’m afraid that as long as he keeps speaking rationally and they keep screaming emotionally that the two will never hear let alone listen to one another. They will simply block out the “unintelligible noise” and just get louder, all the time drawing positive feedback from other people just like them in their own friend groups.

The solution is simple, but extremely difficult.

It involves stepping outside of your comfort zone and trying to understand the other person.

Right-brain (emotional) people need to have COMPASSION for the Left-brain (logical) people.

The Left-brain (logical) people have to have UNDERSTANDING for the Right-brain (emotional) people.